August Full Moon

We have a full moon this week (the exact minute of the full moon is 9:45 PM Tues. evening). The Full Moon of August is called the Sturgeon Moon. BTW, the past seven Augusts I’ve had email about Mars getting as big as the full moon in the last week of August. Not true. Mars, which is half the size of Earth, can never get anywhere near as big or bright as the full moon because it’s too far away. The moon is on average 238,857 miles from the Earth. The closest Mars can get to the Earth is 34.3 million miles (it came to about 35 million miles in 2003). So the closest Mars can get to Earth is about 144 times farther away than the moon. If you could drive a car straight to the moon continuously at 55 mph, it would take you 181 days to get there. A fast passenger jet would take about 16 days of continuous flying to get to the moon. The Apollo astronauts took about 3 days to get to the moon, where they had to do 10 orbits before heading down to the surface. On the moon you’d weigh about 1/6th of what you weigh on Earth. This full moon is slightly bigger and brighter than an average full moon because the moon is slightly closer to the earth (elliptical orbit) than an average full moon. The moon was closest to the earth this month Sunday evening. This Monday evening it’ll be about 226,000 miles away. The Perseid Meteor Shower was Aug. 12-13, but a stray meteor is not impossible now. Here’s when you can see the International Space Station. Here’s a full-sized view of the picture of the moon coming up over Lake Michigan from over in Wisconsin. Here’s this week’s Sky at a Glance. Venus shines brightly in our early evening sky now. Jupiter and much fainter Mars are visible in the early morning. I grew up in Wilmette, Illinois (north of Chicago) and we could go to the beach and watch the moon rise right out of Lake Michigan. (image from MKE NWS)

Rock on Kevin. You speak the truth with data to back it up. Keep up the good work. fixxxer and Travis on the other hand are a joke. Hey Travis did it hit 90 degrees in Flint yet? Are we headed into a heat wave? Watch out 100 degrees may be on the way? You had better increase your RX dosage. You are getting more delusional by the day!!!

Excellent summer write-up for SE Mich by NWS (not including the hot May and before the upcoming heat wave):

There has been much talk regarding the “cool” nature of this year’s summer. But is it really any cooler than normal, or have recent years just been that hot? As you can see in the table below, all three SE Michigan climate sites are a touch warmer than normal so far in Summer 2013, ranking them between the 28th and 44th among each respective site’s warmest summers on record. In other words, this summer has not only been quite normal but has, if anything, resided on the warmer side of normal. On the right side of the table, you can see how this year’s summer ranks compared to the last three summers, all three of which have been among the area’s hottest on record.

Bill : Is it TRUE that a Full MOON…..makes Folks , Do CRAZY THINGS ?? Just wondering ? Also That Pic. Of the Full Moon Over Lake Michigan, is from 2005 . Seems to me it’s Time 2 Find a New PIC…..just my Opinion. Well, I Guess I’m Heading Outside to Do a Little ” HOWLIN’ at The MOON” …. Spin, Sam Busch :::: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5lQ1tQwc-U. God Bless ya ALL…